This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

The Fixer: Introducing SeeClickFix, a better way to connect with us, and the city

It’s time to unveil a new process to report a problem to The Fixer, and have it picked up by the city at the same time.

It’s called SeeClickFix, which not only allows us and Toronto’s 311 service to follow up on problems, but offers people an interactive way to report and comment on them, and close the issue when it’s fixed.

SeeClickFix is used on media websites across North America and is now a tool for the Star to improve on the reporting process and get citizens more involved in their community.

Regular Fixer readers will know that a new template began appearing at the bottom of our column last summer, which provided an alternative to the previous reporting method.

We wanted to make sure it was good fit with our commitment to solving the small daily problems that bug people before we adopted it, but it’s been a hit with readers, so it is here to stay.

Article Continued Below

SeeClickFix works on three basic principles:

• Empowerment. Anyone can report a problem as soon as they see it by downloading the SeeClickFix app on their smart phone, or by using their home computer, and following a few simple steps. The idea is to make it easy and fun to see, click and fix.

• Efficiency: Two heads are better than one, and hundreds of heads — and eyes — are better than two. The city can never be in as many places as its citizens. Reporting issues through a dedicated forum allows us to recognize patterns evolving in a particular area, make conclusions about them and develop stories.

• Engagement: People who make the effort to report even minor issues and see them fixed are likelier to feel more engaged in their community, a self-reinforcing loop that everyone benefits from.

To use the new reporting template, click on the green “report an issue” button beneath the map, which opens up fields that can be filled it to provide the location and details of the problem.

Then click on the red marker on the map and drag it to the approximate location of the problem with your cursor, which enlarges the map and allows you to more precisely identify it.

For those who have shot photos of the problem on their smart phones, the photo can be downloaded and will appear in the report, so everyone can see it for themselves.

Article Continued Below

There’s room in the report for anyone to comment on the problem — even people who are just following along for fun — and engage in a dialogue with others who want to weigh in.

And if you feel strongly about a problem — one that’s in your own area or just rubs you the wrong way — you can vote on getting it fixed, lending the weight of your opinion to the issue.

The benefit to us is that we’ll be dealing with and reporting on problems that have been identified by a more engaged citizenry, while the city can look into and fix the same problem.

Neil Evans, director of 311 Toronto, said it has a “plug” that connects to SeeClickFix and allows reports of graffiti and potholes to flow directly into its database.

Its staff keeps a close eye on other city-related problems by “grazing” reports made through SeeClickFix at night, when the volume of calls and online reports to 311 is lower, he said.

“SeeClickFix was taking service requests before we had a formal relationship with it,” said Evans. “So we developed a receptacle (for graffiti and potholes reports) that it can plug into.”

He described it as a “public/private partnership that is very successful, from our point of view, at sending us service requests.”

We want readers to keep using the standard Fixer form to report problems with agencies not directly related to the city, such as school boards or big utilities like Bell, Rogers and railways.

And the Fixer form is still the best way to email us photos of problems or report on issues in the 905 area, where local government may not be monitoring SeeClickFix.

But in Toronto, it’s a great new way for people to inform us of problems and be more involved in their progress and resolution.

More on Monday about our special relationship with SeeClickFix, which is unique among media in North America.

What’s broken in your neighbourhood? Wherever you are in Greater Toronto, we want to know. To contact us, go to www.thestar.com/thefixer and open the SeeClickFix template, or click on the “submit a problem” link. Call us at 416-869-4823. To read our blog, click on “blogs” at the top of thestar.com’s home page, or go to thestar.blogs.com/thefixer/. Twitter us at TOStarFixer

More from The Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com